Borthu

In the original version of Poul Anderson's "Honorable Enemies," the star Betelgeuse has forty seven planets, six of them with native intelligent races, five of them ruled by the blue humanoid Alfzarians who were the first of the six to develop interplanetary travel! In the revised version, there are still forty seven planets, six of them inhabited, but now there is a single race whose ancestors had come from a planet of another star.

This change reflects the discovery that planets of a giant star would not remain hospitable long enough for life to evolve upon them. Thus, again, there are two alternative histories of Dominic Flandry. In the "earlier" history, the laws of physics and chemistry were sufficiently different that life and intelligence were able to evolve on six Betelgeusan planets. In the "later" history, these six planetary orbits are at least in the zone where water can be liquid so that the planets can be terraformed, or the equivalent, and colonized.

The process sounds familiar from Anderson's later Harvest Of Stars tetralogy:

genetically engineered micro-organisms generate an oxygen-nitrogen atmosphere within decades;
automated processes produce soil;
plants and animals are grown from cells and released.

My question, however, is this. Alfzar has a region called the Borthudian mountains which are inhabited by large, dangerous, flying beings called Borthudian dragons. Centuries earlier, Nicholas van Rijn had tangled with a planet called Borthu whose inhabitants were "Borthudians" - so is this the place of origin of the beings that colonized the Betelgeusian System?

Margins Of Profit II

The original "Margin of Profit" is in Un-Man and other novellas (New York, 1962).

The revised "Margin of Profit" is in The Earth Book Of Stormgate (New York, 1979) and in The Van Rijn Method (New York, 2009).

"...Batavia's towers..." (Un-man, p. 106) become "...Djakarta's towers..." (Van Rijn, p. 139) but otherwise the description of the location by the Java Sea is unchanged.

A "...referobot..." (p. 106) becomes a "...datacom..." (p. 139)

St Dismas as "...the precise and perfect patron for van Rijn...," in the opinion of a union leader (p. 107), is omitted from the revision. 

"...the Solar Federation..." (p. 107) becomes "...the [Solar] Commonwealth..." (p. 140)

Added in the revision is van Rijn questioning why women would join "...a brotherhood." (p. 139)

"'Now get out!'" (p. 109) becomes "'Now, would you like to join me in the bar? - No? Then good day to you, Captain, if possible.'" (p. 144)

So the union leader is a bit less perspicacious and van Rijn is a bit more polite! But there are too many textual changes to note them all here.

Margins Of Profit

I have been side-tracked from Poul Anderson's collections back to his Technic History but there is an overlap because the original version of "Margin of Profit" is in the non-History collection, Un-Man and other novellas, whereas the revised version is in the Technic History collections, The Earth Book Of Stormgate and, more definitively, The Van Rijn Method.

The original version is set in an alternative timeline where:

there is a Solar Federation, not a Solar Commonwealth;
the "Martians" are natives of Mars, not colonists from outside the Solar System.

In both versions, as in the later story, "Hiding Place," a spaceship captain is also a Lodgemaster of the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen. This would create a conflict of interest if a brother needed Brotherhood representation when in a dispute with the captain. There would have to be crew representatives as well as the Lodgemaster on board a ship.

"The regalia of a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen was stiff with gold braid, medals, and jewelry, far removed from the gray coverall he wore on deck..." (Un-man..., New York, 1962, p. 105)

"The formal garb of a Lodgemaster in the Federated Brotherhood of Spacemen was a far remove from the coverall he wore in his ship..." (The Van Rijn Method, New York, 2009, p. 138)

Anderson toned down the Lodgemaster's apparel from ostentatiously expensive regalia to undescribed formal garb! That regalia is a far remove from what many trade union members would want their representative to wear at their expense. In a life or death matter like Borthu, many union members would demonstrate outside a meeting between Lodgemaster and employer. Some would want to attend the meeting even if not invited although it would be advisable to go in unarmed. A fire fight with van Rijn's security would solve nothing. In fact, lobby guards a kilometer below (!) had disarmed the Lodgemaster on his way in so a forced entry by demonstrators would be difficult.

The textual differences between the versions are probably too numerous to enumerate although I will see what I can do in subsequent posts!

More On Van Rijn

Poul Anderson revised "Margin of Profit" for The Earth Book Of Stormgate and the revised version was reprinted in The Van Rijn Method. However, I have the original version in Un-Man and other novellas so I will read it for the first time for comparison. Hank Davis, compiler of The Technic Civilization Saga of which The Van Rijn Method is Volume I, wrote that the revision intensified van Rijn's characterization and fitted the story more consistently into the Technic History so I will look out for any inconsistencies.

Also, although I have reread "Territory," the second story in the van Rijn collection Trader To The Stars relatively recently, I have again forgotten almost all the details. Van Rijn and a handful of human beings, including a woman with whom he interacts, are on another planet where they have some trouble with the natives and van Rijn for once exercises some combat skills. At the end of the story, they have solved their problems but will remain stranded on that planet for a while? Or will have a long journey home? I think.

Reading these two stories is next on the agenda so these volumes will accompany us on a trip to nearby waterfalls which my family want to photograph.

Three Saints And A God

Reading Poul Anderson necessitates the use of a dictionary. Recently, I thought to google the title "Thalassocrat" applied to a ruler on a subjovian planet in "Esau." This is not an alien word because it ends in "-ocrat." (1)

I also suddenly wondered about St Dismas who is continually invoked by Anderson's merchant character, Nicholas van Rijn. Was Dismas, like the Jerusalem Catholic Church and the Galilean Order, a religious fiction by Anderson or was there "really" such a saint? Yes, there was. "Dismas" is a name given to the "good thief" crucified beside Jesus but pardoned by him in Luke's Gospel, thus appropriate for van Rijn.

In "Margin of Profit," van Rijn as usual invokes Dismas whereas his companion prefers:

"...St Nicholas, patron of travelers...In spite of his being your namesake." (2)

(Although, is the patron saint of travelers not St Christopher?)

Thirdly, van Rijn, catching an attacking ship on an energy beam, exclaims:

"Ha, like a fish we play him! Good St Peter the Fisherman, help us not let him get away!" (3)

Finally, having calculatingly used his ship, the Mercury, to capture the pirate, van Rijn reveals that Mercury was the Roman god of commerce, gambling and thieves. Thus, the good thief and the god of thieves meet in a van Rijn story.

(1) Anderson, Poul, The Van Rijn Method, compiled by Hank Davis, Riverdale, NY, 2009, p. 526.
(2) ibid., p. 159.
(3) ibid., p. 166.